BumbleBEEP at work!

The BumbleBEEP systems measures the temperature and the weight of the colony. How can the data improve our knowledge on daily activity, thermoregulatory ability and the colony growth? Nynke Blömer and Lynn Dicks from Cambridge University are doing research on bumblebees, and have collected data during the last two years in 14 locations.

The insights of the data have resulted in the following conclusions so far:

Bumblebee colonies keep their brood temperature stable around 30°C, but some colonies are not able to do this at low and high outside temperatures

Honeybee colony density at landscape level (per 1km²) is not significantly correlated to the ability of colonies to keep brood temperatures between 20 and 34°C

Read more about the application and findings on the poster below!